Located in Washington, D.C., Dumbarton Oaks offers these stipends to postdoctoral scholars engaged in advanced research in Byzantine studies, pre-Columbian studies, or garden and landscape studies for which the use of books, objects, or other materials in the collections of its library, museum, or archives is necessary.

Johnston will be utilizing this stipend to further his study of illustration practices in U.S. and Mexican archaeological reports on Mesoamerican sites, during the period of 1850 to 1925. Johnston specifically focuses on how such practices relate to the evolution of archaeological method and ways of analyzing visual evidence, as well as ideas about how national identity is rooted or not in the pre-Columbian past.